I think as a concept this is a great idea, however, I’m doubtful that the first generation of this product will perform as well as expected. Furthermore, only a small percentage of people will actually be able to use this service, since high, uninterrupted internet speeds are not that common. Even American ISPs have struggled to modernize their infrastructure and have fallen behind by at least 10 years in some areas. Hence, latency will be a major issue for the first and maybe second generations of this product.

AI has been conquering the world in storm. Whether it is detecting cyber attacks, classifying customers, or understanding, processing and creating natural language, artificial neural networks are one of the […]

This blog post gave me a good laugh. It was very funny to see that Google AI machine, which everyone would expect to be powerful and accurate, outright classifies the cat as guacamole. This brings up a good point that technology is not perfect. Image recognition is a narrow artificial intelligence technology that is still being developed. As developers test different algorithms, they will for sure have some hiccups. The implication is that there is more work to do. And the process of solving this kind of problem excites many developers to keep working and refining the technology. Even Google Photos’s facial recognition feature doesn’t work seamlessly. But Google is very smart to put in checks and balances to improve the accuracy of its algorithm. Every week, I would get a few questions from Google Photos to confirm if this picture matches this person or not. There are a lot of times where Google mistakes me for a friend. As a user, I don’t mind that much. The technology is helpful in many ways and I don’t expect a product to be perfect before official release.

Google launched Gmail on April Fools Day in 2004. Everyone who read the announcement from Google had a good laugh, only to realize that Gmail was a serious product that dominated the e-mailing service market 15 […]

Gmail has always been interesting to me; its a piece of software that we all use on a daily basis, but many people don’t know how to use the full functionality of it. I think the evolution of Gmail is excellent; it will continue to make our lives a little easier. I am curious how the newer versions of Gmail will look, as it is a rare piece of software where there seems to be a consensus that most people like how it looks and works. Hopefully, in the new iterations, they don’t make major changes and they keep up their track record of useful innovation.

Gmail and the other platforms that Google offers are always “go-to’s” for me because of their ease of use and they were free. The layouts make everything simple to find and easy to use. Google’s platforms also allow collaboration between other Google users and synergy between its different services. With Google’s overall success, it would not make sense to make any major changes that would deter its current users from using their platforms, and as a user myself hopefully it does not. I look forward to the newly implemented features from Inbox, but also hope the overall structure of Gmail remains the same.

E-PORTFOLIO TIP OF THE MONTH:
Personalize Your Point Submissions
When you get points, the list of your point submissions will be displayed on the drop down sidebar of your e-portfolio. Instead of just having a […]

Huawei, the Chinese tech giant, who has been the subject of controversy lately, has again come under the spotlight. This time, the company is accused of using questionable tactics to copy Apple’s technology. As […]

I think this post brings out a very real risk of doing business in China or with suppliers in China. Chinese companies are notorious for creating knock-off brands and logos, since the copyright and trademark laws are fewer and simply not as enforced there. From a competitive standpoint, Huawei would be smarter to find a niche in the Chinese market to be able to create a sustainable competitive advantage unique to Apple rather than try to imitate the Apple’s products exactly.

It has been an issue for a while that some big Chinese companies, Huawei in this case, copying other American companies’ tactics. There was an article that I read that Apple is taking so much consideration compared to other countries when launching new products/software in China because China is inspecting and spying on products and software for security purposes. This possibly can lead to taking some key components out or extract company secrets. In my personal opinion, many tech companies provide products with similar features. Even Samsung and Apple have been suing each other for violating each other’s copyright like the existence of a home button. I would say it is unavoidable to have similar features on technology because it is clear what consumers want (ex: a fingerprint sensor, bigger screen, etc.) and companies need to act upon them. However, if it comes to copying a company’s secrets, it is a different story. For example, a company cannot just copy “Retina display” from Apple and rename it for its own brand. Therefore, having a similarity between tech products is unavoidable, but that does not mean that companies can just take advantage of other companies’ secrets.

Honestly, this is not a surprise at all. I have read so many news on how companies in China make fake products, copy ideas from other countries’ shows and dramas, and so on. It seems like in China there are laws regarding intellectual property but I don’t think the government is properly enforcing the law especially if it deals with other countries. Regardless of the industry, companies bound to have a similar idea and product, especially in the phone industry. Even then, reverse engineering a product is not acceptable. In my opinion, it is unethical. Before coming up with a new feature, a company spends so much money and time on major resources so it is not right for another company to use reverse engineering at a fraction of a cost.

Like some of the others that have commented I am not terrible surprised about this scandal given the reputation China has had for sometime of making fake and knock off products. As for a legal stand point I think it has to be difficult to come to a just conclusion with international companies. However personally i do think that reverse engineering a product is ok in that if Apple did not have competition and knock offs much like other designers in different industries they would most likely just grow to be even more powerful with even more expensive products. Knock offs at the end of the day seem to help the consumer to an extent while causing problems for huge corporations like Apple that I have a hard time feeling bad for them for.

In January 2012, a small UK-based startup launched an app called Evi. Users could ask the AI-powered helper their questions and get a specific answer back. These answers, called one-shot answers in the search […]

This is very interesting. The usefulness of voice assistants is increasing at a rapid pace. The two biggest issues are partially resolved: transcribing a user’s voice and interpreting a user’s voice. Google Assistant and other digital assistants are doing this with 99% accuracy. The last issue is finding the right information to answer the questions or search queries from users and then putting it in conversational sentences to deliver back to users. Whichever search engine figures this out first, it will win. Right now, most digital assistants can only respond efficiently with some structured commands like sending a text message, setting an alarm, creating an event, etc. For more complicated queries, voice assistants still can’t make it work. I personally think that this technology will be refined and more helpful in the next three to five years.

The first virtual assistant was created in 1994, IBMs Simon. This changed the virtual world and opened the doors for artificial intelligence to make human life easier. Now the question is how much easier could AI make life? The idea of an AI providing a one-shot answer for people is more detrimental than beneficial in my opinion. Artificial intelligence is the backbone of search engines, such as Google, and when we search a question we get several points of views. After clicking a few links you end up with an in-depth answer and the ability to interpret it in your own way. Although, it may make life easier when wanting a quick answer I imagine utilizing Evi would leave many users unsatisfied. However, I do believe this may be beneficial in other industries such as in health care, where using spoken word to search for things and receive only factual answers can improve efficiency, but it shouldn’t be integrated for everyday use. Providing one factual answer may leave no room for perspective and creativity in our society.

On February 10, 2019, Google rolled out its augmented reality feature on Google Maps to some beta testers. Before, Google Maps users have to look at the blue dot on their map and turn around to see the direction. […]

Personally, I dislike using Google Maps for GPS to navigating around a foreign place, because I think its limited compared to Apple Maps. Back in ‘07 when my sister first got her license we used to take road trips, so we would print out the Google Maps directions and I feel like it hasn’t really developed ever since. Having an iPhone also makes it more convenient to just use the Maps app. I always use the satellite map settings to make sure I am familiar with my destination when I arrive while using Apple Maps so Google Maps’ New Augmented Reality Feature might sway me over to use Google Maps. However, the speed of Internet connection, the computing power of a smartphone, and the clarity of the camera contributing to the success of the new function are major constraints for the feature to be favorable for users, like me, over Apple Maps.

It’s interesting to see that you had negative experience with Google Maps. Google Maps definitely has improved a lot over the past few years. I’m sure Google has thought about the constraints that you mentioned. But implementation may be a challenge. Many smartphones on the market do not have strong enough hardware, camera, or processors to smoothly implement the AR feature. I have a Sony Xperia Z, which was Sony’s flagship Android phone three years ago. However, I already experience slower performance of Google Maps on my phone.

I think that Google has the right focus in terms of improving their Google Maps experience if the firm wants to stand out as the dominant tech firm in the space. I am curious, however, how much data and phone processing power the new application will use. After an update is made to an application, I always ensure to double-check the usage rates – and I think that other consumers may as well. I think that the space as a whole is ready to be disrupted by a smaller player with better technology. I do not think that Google devotes a significant amount of resources to updating its Google Maps platform, given the length of time before this change came about.
I think even better than this proposed solution would be for Google to use a system like Pokemon Go used in order to map out the United States: let the users do it. While Google already does this to some extent, I think the firm could go even further to improve the experience.

E-PORTFOLIO TIP OF THE MONTH:
Creating Favicons
A favicon (short for favorite icon), is a small icon that represents your website, most often found in the address bar of your web browser or in lists of […]

It seems like Facebook just can’t get off the news nowadays, with the most recent development alleging the tech giant has been secretly paying people to install a “Facebook Research” VPN that lets the compa […]

Facebook’s entire business model is based on collecting user data, so I doubt they will stop unless regulators take a definitive stand. Although this sounds creepy, at least they are doing research with willing and compensated participants instead of ‘free’ users who are not aware of the nuances of the privacy agreement.